The Innovation Bottom Line

Findings from the 2012 Sustainability & Innovation Global Executive Study and Research Report.

February 05, 2013

This is the fourth annual research report jointly produced by MIT Sloan Management Review and The Boston Consulting Group on the connection between sustainability and business. This year’s report focuses on who is profiting from their sustainability practices and why. Overall, respondents reporting profit from sustainability went up by 23% to 37% of the total. As we explore in detail, business-model innovation is the crux of sustainability profits for a majority of companies.

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Since 2010, MIT Sloan Management Review and The Boston Consulting Group have been charting how organizations have tackled sustainability-related challenges — from resource scarcity to customer demands for healthier products — with innovations that create business value. Our 2010 study found Sustainability Embracers, who firmly believe that sustainability is necessary to be competitive. In 2011, we probed the business dimension more deeply and discovered that sustainability had become a permanent element of many company agendas and a source of profit for some.

This year, the trend toward profit continued: Key measures bumped up and showed that sustainability is paying off for a growing number of companies. Overall, the portion of respondents reporting profit from sustainability went up 23%, to 37% of the total.

But perhaps most important: Nearly 50% of companies have changed their business models as a result of sustainability opportunities — a 20% jump over last year. As we will explore in detail, business-model innovation is the crux of sustainability profits. Companies reporting that it adds to their bottom lines leverage these innovations to translate sustainability opportunities and pressures into business value.

The research and analysis for this report was conducted under the direction of the authors as part of an MIT Sloan Management Review research initiative in collaboration with and sponsored by The Boston Consulting Group.

A Clear Trajectory

Demands are coming from all sides, creating a systemic imperative and an opportunity to advance sustainability goals. As companies in many industries grapple with costs, they are turning to their supply chains to reduce energy use, simplify packaging, mitigate commodity price risks and meet customer sustainability expectations. Consumers, especially in Europe, are increasingly aware of a product’s sustainability credentials and willing to pay a premium for environmentally sound products and services. Employees’ expectations bring a strong internal pressure. Their growing commitment to sustainability makes the company’s footprint a key element in attracting and retaining talent, especially among younger generations.

The systemic effect of these demands is elevating the sustainability agenda in a wide range of industries. Companies in resource-intensive industries have been grappling with sustainability issues for a number of years. But other industries, from consumer products to software, are also increasing their focus on sustainability. Reinsurers, for example, are adding sustainability risks to the actuarial equation, driving companies to innovate to avert those risks.

5. Regulators, NGOs and the media are not driving the focus for Sustainability-Driven Innovators. However, our study found that companies less successful at sustainability business-model innovation are 25% more likely to be influenced by legislative and political pressures than Sustainability-Driven Innovators are, and 72% more likely to be driven by the need to maintain operating licenses.

7. Some recent research using highly rigorous randomized field experiments shows that people are willing to pay premiums. See J. Hainmueller and M. J. Hiscox, "Buying Green? Field Experimental Tests of Consumer Support for Environmentalism," http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2062429.